European standards do not allow road vehicles to have protruding appendages upon the side of the vehicle, except for rear view mirrors. In the application of sliding vent windows particularly to the sides of vehicles, it is required that the window when closed is entirely flush with the outside of the body and in water and air tight sealing relation therewith. It is further required that when the window is opened to provide ventilation, there should still nevertheless be no protruding frames inside or outside of the vehicle. It is my desire to apply these standards to vehicles assembled for the U.S. market.
A further problem existing in the use of sliding vent windows is to achieve the desired motion of the sliding window within various vehicle openings and in accordance with vehicle side contours which include compound curvatures. Currently, there is the existing requirement of fit and function, under today's desired goal and with critical dimensional tolerances for periphery fit to the vehicle and to a flush fit to the outside of the vehicle.
A further problem is the considerable difficulty in the slide mounting of the window so that it will be in alignment with the body curvature when in a closed position and in peripherally sealed relation to the body and which when retracted upon the interior of the vehicle will be spaced inwardly of the body or an adjacent window, parallel to and on an interior thereof, without protrusion into the interior of the body.
One form of sliding window assembly for a vehicle is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,054 of Steve A. Spretnjak entitled "Window Assembly for a Vehicle", which issued on Nov. 7, 1978.